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Dissertation / thesis | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Bush Burnt, the Stones Remain: Female Initiation Rites in Urban Zambia |
Author: | Rasing, Thera |
Year: | 2001 |
Pages: | 350 |
Language: | English |
Series: | African Studies Centre |
City of publisher: | Münster |
Publisher: | Lit |
ISBN: | 3825856119 |
Geographic term: | Zambia |
Subjects: | girls' initiation dissertations (form) Cultural Roles Religion and Witchcraft urbanization |
Abstract: | This book offers an interpretation of the relevance of female initiation rites in an urban setting among 'modern' Christian women in Zambia. It examines changes in gender relations during the last few centuries and decades on a socioeconomic, religious and political level. It shows that despite these changes, initiation rites remain of remarkable significance to women. The author gives an in-depth description of these initiation rites and analyses their meaning and relevance for Zambian women today. Although new types of initiation rites, such as Christian weddings and kitchen parties, based on Christian ideas and ideas of modernity, have emerged, traditional initiation rites remain the central institution that construes female identity. Initiation rites emphasize female fertility, but also the importance of inter-human relationships, necessary for procreation, as well as relationships with the ancestral spirits, and women's religious roles. The book is based on field research carried out in Copperbelt towns in 1995-1996, and 1999. |